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ORLEY FARM
the defender of his possible innocence, not the protector of his
probable guilt. It, all resolves itself into this. Let every lawyer
go into court with a mind resolved to make conspicuous to the
light of day that which seems to him to be the truth. A lawyer
who does not do that — who does the reverse of that, has in
my mind undertaken work which is unfit for a gentleman and
impossible for an honest man.”
“What a pity it is that you should not have an opportunity of rivalling Von Bauhr at the congress!”
“I have no doubt that Von Bauhr said a great deal of
the same nature; and what Von Bauhr said will not wholly
be wasted, though it may not yet have reached our sublime
understandings.”
“Perhaps he will vouchsafe to us a translation.”
“It would be useless at present, seeing that we cannot bring
ourselves to believe it possible that a foreigner should in any
respect be wiser than ourselves. If any such point out to us
our follies, we at once claim those follies as the special evidences of our wisdom. We are so self-satisfied with our own
customs, that we hold up our hands with surprise at the fatuity of men who presume to point out to us their defects. Those
practices in which we most widely depart from the broad and
recognised morality of all civilised ages and countries are to
us the Palladiums of our jurisprudence. Modes of proceeding
which, if now first proposed to us, would be thought to come
direct from the devil, have been made so sacred by time that
they have lost all the horror of their falseness in the holiness of
their age. We cannot understand that other nations look upon
such doings as we regard the human sacrifices of the Brahmins;
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ANTHONY TROLLOPE
but the fact is that we drive a Juggernaut’s car through every
assize town in the country, three times a year, and allow it to
be dragged ruthlessly through the streets of the metropolis at
all times and seasons. Now come back to breakfast, for I won’t
wait here any longer.” Seeing that these were the ideas of Felix
Graham, it is hardly a matter of wonder that such men as Mr.
Furnival and Mr. Round should have regarded his success at
the bar as doubtful.
“Uncommon bad mutton chops these are,” said Staveley, as
they sat at their meal in the coffee-room of the Imperial Hotel.
“Are they?” said Graham. “They seem to me much the same
as other mutton chops.”
“They are uneatable. And look at this for coffee! Waiter,
take this away, and have some made fresh.”
“Yes, sir,” said the waiter, striving to escape without further
comment.
“And waiter — ”
“Yes, sir;” and the poor overdriven functionary returned.
“Ask them from me whether they know how to make coffee. It does not consist of an unlimited supply of lukewarm
water poured over an infinitesimal proportion of chicory. That
process, time-honoured in the hotel line, will not produce
the beverage called coffee. Will you have the goodness to explain that in the bar as coming from me?”
“Yes, sir,” said the waiter; and then he was allowed to disappear.
“How can you give yourself so much trouble with no possible hope of an advantageous result?” said Felix Graham.
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“That’s what you weak men always say. Perseverance in
such a course will produce results. It is because we put up
with bad things that hotel-keepers continue to give them to
us. Three or four Frenchmen were dining with my father yesterday at the King’s Head, and I had to sit at the bottom of
the table. I declare to you that I literally blushed for my country; I did indeed. It was useless to say anything then, but it was
quite clear that there was nothing that one of them could eat.
At any hotel in France you’ll get a good dinner; but we’re so
proud that we are ashamed to take lessons.” And thus Augustus Staveley was quite as loud against his own country, and
as laudatory with regard to others, as Felix Graham had been
before breakfast.
And so the congress went on at Birmingham. The fat Italian from Tuscany read his paper; but as he, though judge in
his own country and reformer here in England, was somewhat
given to comedy, this morning was not so dull as that which
had been devoted to Von Bauhr. After him Judge Staveley
made a very elegant, and some said, a very eloquent speech;
and so that day was done. Many other days also wore themselves away in this process; numerous addresses were read, and
answers made to them, and the newspapers for the time were
full of law. The defence of our own system, which was supposed to be the most remarkable for its pertinacity, if not for
its justice, came from Mr. Furnival, who roused himself to a divine wrath for the occasion. And then the famous congress at
Birmingham was brought to a close, and all the foreigners returned to their own countries.
CHAPTER XIX
THE STAVELEY FAMILY
The next two months passed by without any events which
deserve our special notice, unless it be that Mr. Joseph Mason
and Mr. Dockwrath had a meeting in the room of Mr. Matthew
Round, in Bedford Row. Mr. Dockwrath struggled hard to effect this without the presence of the London attorney; but
he struggled in vain. Mr. Round was not the man to allow
any stranger to tamper with his client, and Mr. Dockwrath
was forced to lower his flag before him. The result was that
the document or documents which had been discovered at
Hamworth were brought up to Bedford Row; and Dockwrath at last made up his mind that as he could not supplant
Matthew Round, he would consent to fight under him as his
lieutenant — or even as his sergeant or corporal, if no higher
position might be allowed to him.
“There is something in it, certainly, Mr. Mason,” said young
Round; “but I cannot undertake to say as yet that we are in
a position to prove the point.”
“It will be proved,” said Mr. Dockwrath.
“I confess it seems to me very clear,” said Mr. Mason,
who by this time had been made to understand the bearings of
the question. “It is evident that she chose that day for her date
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ORLEY FARM
because those two persons had then been called upon to act as
witnesses to that other deed.”
“That of course is our allegation. I only say that we may
have some difficulty in proving it.”
“The crafty, thieving swindler!” exclaimed Mr. Mason.
“She has been sharp enough if it is as we think,” said Round,
laughing; and then there was nothing more done in the matter for some time, to the great disgust both of Mr. Dockwrath
and Mr. Mason. Old Mr. Round had kept his promise to Mr.
Furnival; or, at least, had done something towards keeping
it. He had not himself taken the matter into his own hands,
but he had begged his son to be cautious. “It’s not the sort of
business that we care for, Mat,” said he; “and as for that fellow down in Yorkshire, I never liked him.” To this Mat had
answered that neither did he like Mr. Mason; but as the case
had about it some very remarkable points, it was necessary to
look into it; and then the matter was allowed to stand over till
after Christmas.
We will now change the scene to Noningsby, the judge’s
country seat, near Alston, at which a party was assembled for
the Christmas holidays. The judge was there of course, — without his wig; in which guise I am inclined to think that judges spend the more comfortable hours of their existence; and
there also was Lady Staveley, her presence at home being altogether a matter of course, inasmuch as she had no other home
than Noningsby. For many years past, ever since the happy
day on which Noningsby had been acquired, she had repudiated London; and the poor judge, when called upon by his
duties to reside there, was compelled to live like a bachelor, in
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ANTHONY TROLLOPE
lodgings. Lady Staveley was a good, motherly, warm-hearted
woman, who thought a great deal about her flowers and fruit,
believing that no one else had them so excellent, — much also
about her butter and eggs, which in other houses were, in her
opinion, generally unfit to be eaten; she thought also a great
deal about her children, who were all swans, — though, as
she often observed with a happy sigh, those of her neighbours
were so uncommonly like geese. But she thought most of
all of her husband, who in her eyes was the perfection of all
manly virtues. She had made up her mind that the position of
a puisne judge in England was the highest which could fall to
the lot of any mere mortal. To become a Lord Chancellor, or
a Lord Chief Justice, or a Chief Baron, a man must dabble
with Parliament, politics, and dirt; but the bench-fellows of
these politicians were selected for their wisdom, high conduct,
knowledge, and discretion. Of all such selections, that made by
the late king when he chose her husband, was the one which
had done most honour to England, and had been in all its results most beneficial to Englishmen. Such was her creed with
reference to domestic matters.
The Staveley young people at present were only two in
number, Augustus, namely, and his sister Madeline. The eldest
daughter was married, and therefore, though she spent these
Christmas holidays at Noningsby, must not be regarded as
one of the Noningsby family. Of Augustus we have said enough;
but as I intend that Madeline Staveley shall, to many of my
readers, be the most interesting personage in this story, I must
pause to say something of her. I must say something of her;
and as, with all women, the outward and visible signs of grace
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and beauty are those which are thought of the most, or at any
rate spoken of the oftenest, I will begin with her exterior attributes. And that the muses may assist me in my endeavour,
teaching my rough hands to draw with some accuracy the delicate lines of female beauty, I now make to them my humble
but earnest prayer.
Madeline Staveley was at this time about nineteen years of
age. That she was perfect in her beauty I cannot ask the muses to say, but that she will some day become so, I think the goddesses may be requested to prophesy. At present she was
very slight, and appeared to be almost too tall for her form.
She was indeed above the average height of women, and from
her brother encountered some ridicule on this head; but not
the less were all her movements soft, graceful, and fawnlike
as should be those of a young girl. She was still at this time
a child in heart and spirit, and could have played as a child
had not the instinct of a woman taught to her the expediency of a staid demeanour. There is nothing among the wonders of womanhood more wonderful than this, that the young
mind and young heart, — hearts and minds young as youth
can make them, and in their natures as gay, — can assume
the gravity and discretion of threescore years and maintain it
successfully before all comers. And this is done, not as a lesson
that has been taught, but as the result of an instinct implanted
from the birth. Let us remember the mirth of our sisters in our
homes, and their altered demeanours when those homes were
opened to strangers; and remember also that this change had
come from the inward working of their own feminine natures!
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ANTHONY TROLLOPE
But I am altogether departing from Madeline Staveley’s external graces. It was a pity almost that she should ever have become grave, because with her it was her smile that was so lovely. She smiled with her whole face. There was at such moments
a peculiar laughing light in her gray eyes, which inspired one
with an earnest desire to be in her confidence; she smiled
with her soft cheek, the light tints of which would become
a shade more pink from the excitement, as they softly rippled
into dimples; she smiled with her forehead which would catch
the light from her eyes and arch itself in its glory; but above all
she smiled with her mouth, just showing, but hardly showing,
the beauty of the pearls within. I never saw the face of a woman whose mouth was equal in pure beauty, in beauty that was
expressive of feeling, to that of Madeline Staveley. Many have
I seen with a richer lip, with a more luxurious curve, much
more tempting as baits to the villainy and rudeness of man;
but never one that told so much by its own mute eloquence of
a woman’s happy heart and a woman’s happy beauty. It was
lovely as I have said in its mirth, but if possible it was still
more lovely in its woe; for then the lips would separate, and
the breath would come, and in the emotion of her suffering
the life of her beauty would be unrestrained.
Her face was oval, and some might say that it was almost
too thin; they might say so till they knew it well, but would
never say so when they did so know it. Her complexion was
not clear, though it would be wrong to call her a brunette.
Her face and forehead were never brown, but yet she could
not boast the pure pink and the pearly white which go to the
formation of a clear complexion. For myself I am not sure that
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I love a clear complexion. Pink and white alone will not give
that hue which seems best to denote light and life, and to
tell of a mind that thinks and of a heart that feels. I can name
no colour in describing the soft changing tints of Madeline
Staveley’s face, but I will make bold to say that no man ever
found it insipid or inexpressive.
And now what remains for me to tell? Her nose was Grecian, but perhaps a little too wide at the nostril to be considered perfect in its chiselling. Her hair was soft and brown, —
that dark brown which by some lights is almost black; but she
was not a girl whose loveliness depended much upon her hair.
With some women it is their great charm, — Neæras who
love to sit half sleeping in the shade, — but it is a charm that
possesses no powerful eloquence. All beauty of a high order
should speak, and Madeline’s beauty was ever speaking. And
now that I have said that, I believe that I have told all that
may be necessary to place her outward form before the inward
eyes of my readers.
In commencing this description I said that I would begin
with her exterior; but it seems to me now that in speaking of
these I have sufficiently noted also that which was within.
Of her actual thoughts and deeds up to this period it is not
necessary for our purposes that anything should be told;
but of that which she might probably think or might possibly
do, a fair guess may, I hope, be made from that which has been
already written.
Such was the Staveley family. Those of their guests whom
it is necessary that I should now name, have been already introduced to us. Miss Furnival was there, as was also her father.
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ANTHONY TROLLOPE
He had not intended to make any prolonged stay at Noningsby, — at least so he had said in his own drawing-room;
but nevertheless he had now been there for a week, and it
seemed probable that he might stay over Christmas-day. And
Felix Graham was there. He had been asked with a special
purpose by his friend Augustus, as we already have heard; in
order, namely, that he might fall in love with Sophia Furnival,
and by the aid of her supposed hatful of money avoid the evils
which would otherwise so probably be the consequence of his
highly impracticable turn of mind. The judge was not averse to
Felix Graham; but as he himself was a man essentially practical in all his views, it often occurred that, in his mild kindly
way, he ridiculed the young barrister. And Sir Peregrine Orme
was there, being absent from home as on a very rare occasion;
and with him of course were Mrs. Orme and his grandson.
Young Perry was making, or was prepared to make, somewhat of a prolonged stay at Noningsby. He had a horse there
with him for the hunting, which was changed now and again;
his groom going backwards and forwards between that place
and The Cleeve. Sir Peregrine, however, intended to return
before Christmas, and Mrs. Orme would go with him. He had
come for four days, which for him had been a long absence
from home, and at the end of the four days he would be gone.
They were all sitting in the dining-room round the luncheon-table on a hopelessly wet morning, listening to a lecture
from the judge on the abomination of eating meat in the middle of the day, when a servant came behind young Orme’s chair
and told him that Mr. Mason was in the breakfast-parlour and
wished to see him.
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